The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested senior inspector of Parksite police station, Somnath Gughe, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 from a cattle shed owner in the area.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested senior inspector of Parksite police station, Somnath Gughe, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 from a cattle shed owner in the area.

Gughe was caught while he was accepting the bribe at hotel Tara Punjab in Chembur, DIG, ACB, Niket Kaushik said.

According to the ACB, the complainant, a social worker from Vikhroli, had approached Park Site police after the BMC pulled down his friend’s cattle shed without notice. The BMC had apparently carried out the eviction drive without issuing a notice to the owner. The cattle shed owner had a long-time dispute over the land with a private firm, Sunil Enterprises. The eviction drive was carried out with protection (bandobast) from the Park Site police.

The social worker had lodged complaints with the police as well as the BMC at the latter’s ward office (S-ward). The next day, the social worker went to check the status of his complaint at Parksite police station. Gughe allegedly told the social worker that the cattle shed owner’s son had a police record and he was in the process of initiating proceedings against him under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act. Gughe allegedly told the social worker to ask the tabela owner and his son to meet him.

The next day, the social worker took the tabela owner’s son to the police station and met Gughe. The senior inspector allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh to initiate MPDA proceedings against the cattle shed owner’s son and chapter proceedings against his family members.

The social worker then approached the ACB. The demanded amount was brought down to Rs 80,000. On Thursday night, the social worker went to hand over the bribe amount to Gughe at Hotel Tara Punjab in Chembur as per the police’s direction. A team of ACB officials caught Gughe red-handed.

On February 8, senior inspector Arun Khanvilkar with the ATS was arrested by ACB for allegedly collecting Rs 2.5 lakh from an instant lottery shop owner from Kandivli.